Tuesday, March 22, 2011

US border corruption

As we all know, US consumption of drugs is one of the driving factors behind the violence in Mexico. But another under-reported factor is US corruption, particularly along the southwest border. A new case highlights just how bad the problem can be:

Angelo Vega took over the police force in Columbus, New Mexico, about two years ago. Like many of his Mexican counterparts, he pledged to fight the drug cartels and human traffickers' influence in the town.

Vega is now fighting federal charges of conspiring with the town mayor, a Columbus trustee and eight other residents to buy and smuggle weapons into the hands of the drug cartels.

According to the 84-count indictment, the defendants allegedly bought about 200 guns. The indictment says they made false claims that the guns were for their own personal use. They were allegedly acting as what's known as "straw buyers" – ie, they bought the weapons knowing they would end up in someone else's hands.

And indeed, according to the indictment, some of the weapons did end up in the wrong hands, in the hands of Mexican drug cartels south of the border, in the hands of the very people who are responsible for violence that has cost more than 35,000 lives in just over four years.

This is the kind of story one hears every day in Mexico – good cop pledges to bring peace, good cop turns out to be corrupt on the side, eager for a little extra. In the US, it's more rare, but as this case shows, it does happen. And when it does, it has terrible consequences on both sides of the border.

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About Me

I'm a 39-year-old freelance journalist/author, until recently based in Mexico City. I've written for Newsweek (with whom I was an editor from 2000 to 2007) Slate.com, Foreign Policy, Jane's Intelligence Weekly, FDI magazine, the Sunday Times, World Politics Review, Soldier of Fortune, The News (Mexico City), The Sun, Nogales International and the Haitian Times. I've written two books on Mexico's drug war, "The Last Narco," published September 2010, and "Hasta El Ultimo Dia," published in March 2012. I hold a Master's Degree in War Studies from the University of Glasgow.
I have provided commentary on the drug war for CNN, NPR, the BBC, The New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, AOL News, CTV (Canada), Xinhua, El Universal and Reforma (Mexico) and several other publications and major news outlets.
I can be reached for requests for commentary/talks on the Mexican drug war at mbeithpublic@gmail.com
The photos and opinions on this site are my own, unless otherwise specified.